Drawing the World with ArtAchieve #hsreviews #artachieve

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I am part of the Homeschool Review Crew. All opinions are my own.

Ever since I was a teenager, I have always been fascinated with culture. I love learning about different countries and then trying to immerse myself with everything I can about them. Usually it would start with finding a country I wanted to learn about and then cooking one of their meals, listening to traditional music, getting books from the library, etc. So it wasn't any different when we started using ArtAchieve'sEntire Level II for art.

ArtAchieve has lessons for beginners through advanced artists so they really do have something for everyone. But what I really enjoy is that each lesson is based on a new country. Our first lesson was drawing a Swedish dala horse which has proved to be more fun than I thought it could be. What's quite nice is that each lesson can be viewed on Powerpoint or a video so even if you yourself aren't a great artist, you will be walked through the entire project.

For our choice, we used the video lessons because I like to be able to follow along to every detail. And I did the lesson myself with Mary! I always loved art so combining art and culture was a lot of fun for me!

Each video lesson starts out with the types of supplies you'll need, the history behind what you're drawing, a warm up activity with a printable page, rules for drawing, step by step directions for drawing, direction for coloring and then a reflection on what you drew.

I really love how no one's drawings will come out the same for this. I don't believe art is supposed to be a complete copy of what the teacher drew. In each lesson, the instructor says that everyone's drawing will be different and that's just what makes art.

Above is a picture of the Dala horse that Mary did. I think it came out beautifully and she was very proud of it as well. And I love how hers was different from the picture examples too.

Another fabulous addition to the lessons are the cross-curricular connections for each of them. The cross-curricular connections can be found by going to the top and clicking on Art Lessons. From there, choose the level you want. On that page, you will see pictures of all the lessons offered in that level. Click the lesson you like and you will see the cross curricular connections there. For example, for the Swedish Dala horse, we studied Geography by learning with Sweden is, History was about the Dala horse, Writing was an essay on how woodcarvers carve Dala horses, Literature was reading Swedish folk tales, Music was listening to traditional Swedish music, Science was learning about Swedish horse breeds, and Cooking was making a Swedish meal. For our meal, I made Swedish meatballs and they were a hit!

With the art lessons and the cross curricular connections, this is an AMAZING addition to homeschool. I based a lot of our lessons around Sweden and we've even learned there is a "Little Sweden" right here in the US. It's located in Kansas and we are even thinking of visiting!

Overall ArtAchieve is an amazing program and I know we will be doing each level! If you're interested in learning more about them, check out their site. Lessons can be bought individually, in a bundle or the entire level. They also have a few free lessons too to get a taste for them.

Make sure to read below on what the rest of the crew thought about ArtAchieve too!